WAMC Northeast Report

Weekdays, 3:30PM - 4PM and 6PM - 6:30PM

Northeast Report and Northeast Report - Late Edition are two half hour magazines of news and information, aired every weekday from 3:30PM-4:00PM just before All Things Considered, and again from 6:05PM - 6:30PM just before Marketplace.

Northeast Report features reports from the award-winning WAMC News team, plus commentary, arts news and interviews, the latest weather forecast, and an afternoon business wrap-up. The program is hosted by WAMC Senior Correspondent Brian Shields who has been with WAMC for 25 years as senior news anchor, host and reporter.

In a pair of recent commentaries, I have addressed the Middle East, and particularly the misperceptions of Saudi Arabia and Iran. I’d like to return to the Middle East but this time in regard to Israel and Palestine. If there is any topic on which hate mail is assured, it is Israel and Palestine. It is also a topic on which many find it difficult to understand or acknowledge any middle ground. Commentary critical of Israel will be misunderstood by many of Israel’s supporters as an attack on its existence. Commentary critical of the Palestinians will be misunderstood by many of their supporters as an attack on their claims to live in the historic territory.

Danskammer Energy wants to construct a new gas-fired power plant in the Town of Newburgh. The owners and operators say the proposed plant would have economic and environmental benefits. Environmentalists, however, stand against the proposal, saying it flies in the face of renewable energy goals. Earlier Monday, Danskammer officials held the first of four open houses.

A week ago, a panel decided to give New York’s lawmakers, the governor, the attorney general, the comptroller and state agency heads big salary increases. They did so under authority granted to them by the governor and the legislature and their decision tied pay hikes to limits for these state government leaders on outside income for lawmakers as well as a dramatic reduction in the number of additional stipends available to legislators.

A government reform group has filed a lawsuit to stop a pay raise granted to New York state lawmakers by a compensation commission. The conservative-leaning Government Justice Center says the salary increase is unconstitutional, because it also “radically change the rules surrounding serving in the state Legislature.” The group filed papers in State Supreme Court in Albany Friday morning. Some lawmakers are also angry over the commission’s recommended restrictions on their outside income and stipends.

There’s a new program kicking off next year in the Hudson Valley. Founders of the experiential gap year program for 18-25-year-olds say it is the first of its kind in the region and unlike any other gap program in existence.

New Jersey Transit has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to Bombardier Transportation for new state-of-the-art rail cars. The vehicles will be built at Bombardier’s manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh.

People who support legalizing recreational marijuana for adults in New York say 2019 may be the year that it happens. At a conference to explore the best way to craft legislation Wednesday, participants said it needs to include reparative justice for communities most adversely affected by the decades long marijuana prohibition in New York.

There are a few select awards that truly resonate, distinctions that have a weight and gravitas beyond the rest. Awards that brand a recipient for life. Things like an Oscar, a Pulitzer, a Nobel Peace Prize, maybe a Grammy. And perhaps the Heisman. The Heisman trophy is the grand champion of all individual awards in college sports, big enough to have its own eponymous pose and televised award show. The Heisman Trophy goes essentially to the most valuable player in college football, although that’s something of a simplification. According to the Heisman Trust, the organization behind the award, the Heisman “recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.” What that’s come to mean over the years is it typically goes to the best quarterback, or sometimes running back, that plays for one of the top teams in the country that wins almost every game and consistently stays in the hunt for a national championship. Which means that since 2000, we’ve had 18 quarterbacks and two running backs from exclusively major Division I schools – including four Oklahoma Sooners and two each from Alabama, USC, and Florida State. These are the most glamourous, well known, successful football winners, your leading men so to speak. And presumably the next generation of professional football luminaries, guys who would go on to quarterback Super Bowl champions and make millions of dollars in the process.

Despite the threat of demolition, a new plan to redevelop an old power plant on Burlington’s waterfront may be on the table. A concept plan was presented to the City Council of Vermont’s largest city Monday night.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says he backs a pay commission’s recommendation that he and the legislature receive a more than 60 percent pay increase over the next three years. The move would make the Democrat the highest paid governor in the nation.

With this administration demolishing the regulatory state, we need to talk about the underlying claim of liberty. Conservatives once distinguished between liberty and license. Liberty was morally and socially responsible; license was not. That distinction seems to have disappeared from the conservative vocabulary. And with it the moral order in the country.

The New York state Board of Regents recommends that an additional $2.1 billion be spent on schools next year, and that a 12-year-old court order to fully fund schools be phased in over the next three years. The proposal is being applauded by school funding advocacy groups.